october has arrived - shorter days, longer nights.
one of my favorite times to be outside.
but, the world feels heavy.
headlines full of echoes we swore we’d never repeat.
voices dampened. truth stretched thin.
somewhere in that noise, old versions of myself show up like ghosts.
haunting the corners.
reminding me of the times i stayed quiet.
afraid to speak up.
making myself small.
and believing i had to hustle to belong.
but, silence is not safety.
in our darkest chapters, it was never the quiet that saved us.
it was people who refused to look away.
and small acts of care become light in the dark.
maybe our work now is to notice beauty.
to carry forward the pieces of ourselves that know how to love fiercely.
to keep speaking.
it reminds me that even the smallest light shows up brighter in the dark.
even when the world is unraveling, there’s power in choosing to stay present.
to bear witness.
to keep tending what is fragile and enduring.
in october, the dark can be real.
and the beauty can be real too.
we carry both.
always.
xx jen